Winter Warmer

Hello food.....

Almost Christmas

The nights are getting colder, but it's not quite time for the festivity of mulled wine just yet!

This is a nice (almost) Christmassy drink, that is super cheap and super tasty.

1. Place a carton of apple juice in a pan with 1/2 tsp cinammon.

2. Bring to the boil slowly.

3. Place one measure of vodka in a latte glass (or similar)

4. Fill up with warm apple juice.

5. Drink (sensibly)

Lovely! 

Tarts in a tart in tart

Hello food.....

Happy Tart

Luckily for me I have very clever and talented friends that can help with all manner of Jess's Messes related things!

The latest one is Jane, who has been helping me with all my accountancy and organisational things.

As a thank you I created a specificly requested foodie delight, which appears to have gone down very well indeed. Here are her lovely words of feedback:

"Jess

Thank you so much for my tarts in a tart (in a tart).  You make the impossible, possible and delicious!

I’ve always loved the cheese and onion flavour, but the addition of balsamic vinegar in a couple of them was inspired, such a lovely flavour.  I think it possibly replaces my previous favourite of the mushroom and , which for a mushroom fan is always a winner.

Tarts in a tart

I LOVE the new tomato,
mascarpone and basil – hopefully this will be included in the hamper tart
options next year!

Thanks again J

Jane
(Tart)"

A thing to create for a person that has helped me out incredibly and lovely feedback. All in all a good food moment! :)

  

2 Months To Go!

Hello food.....

2 months today is the most beautiful day of the year.....  CHRISTMAS DAY!

This is always my favourite day of the year. To come together with all my lovely family, have some amazing food and just have a true day of utter relaxation and happiness.

Buying presents is always something I absolutely LOVE - however I know that alot of people find it very stressful and annoying to a) try and decide on what to get someone and b) have to go out into the crazily busy, cold streets, hot shops and spend hours trudging behind slow people.

The Jess's Messes Christmas Hampers provide an ideal present shopping solution.

Beautiful Bags

Not only can you choose exactly what selection of products you would like in your hamper (all homemade by Jess), but also the beautiful finished product is hand delivered (for free) right to your door.


There's a great selection of Beautiful Bags and Jolly Jars, all completely homemade from scratch with the freshest of ingredients.

The Seasonal Selections

Beautiful Bags

• Tarts
• Onion and Thyme



Jolly Jars

• Leek and Stilton

• Twisty, Cheesy Snackingtons
• Secret Shortbread
• Giggly Gingerbread People
• Excellent X-mas Cake
• Merry Meringues
• Magical Mince Pies

Jolly Jars

• Ravishing Red Onion Marmalade
• Charming Christmas Chutney
• Luscious Lemon Curd
• Jess's Jingle Jam



Santa's Succulent Snacks Hamper

• Barrowscotch Butterclough Sauce 

The Packages

• Ho Ho Ho Humble Hamper (3 bags, 2 jars) - £12.95
• Santa's Succulent Snacks (4 bags, 3 jars) - £16.95
• Golden Grotto Gift (5 bags, 4 jars) - £21.00
• If you have any special dietary or other requests (e.g. just jars or only bags) just email jess@jesssmesses.co.uk 

Extravagant X-mas Extras

• Mrs Claus's Mulled Wine (500ml) - £7.75
• Mrs Claus's Mulled Wine with personalised hand painted wine bottle (500ml)  - £12.75
• Jess's Messes the Cookbook - £12.50



Personalised Wine Bottle

• Special Offer - buy a hamper, get a Jess's Messes book for £10.50

To order a hamper just follow this link and select which hamper you would like to order and make you selections. I will then send you an invoice. You can either pay online through PayPal, or by cash when I deliver to you. :)

Please make sure you have placed all orders by 1st December at the latest!

Email jess@jesssmesses.co.uk for more information! 

Thank you!!!

The most popular recipe so far

Hello food.....

Filo Pastry Prawny Fantasticals

Everytime I come on here to see how the blog is doing, how many times people have looked at it, which posts people have been looking at, comments etc... every single day people are looking at this post.

Filo Pastry Prawny Fantasticals

I just thought I would share the most popular recipe so far, so if anyone is wondering what would be best to make, this is my suggestion - just based on it's pure popularity (and simplicity)! :)

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Party food ideas

Hello food.....

One item that I believe is always essential when having 'nibbles' at a party is some really nice Jess's Messes Slightly Spicy salsa! As convenient as it is maybe to get some salsa in a jar. For 5 minutes of work it is indescribably tastier, and so, so easy that really there is no excuse. Just follow these simple instructions and you will have the perfect salsa!

• 10 medium tomatoes (deseeded)
• 1 red onion
• 1 red chilli
• 1 handful corinader
• 1 lime
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp caster sugar

Finely dice the tomatoes, onion and chilli, tear the coriander, grate the lime zest, squeeze in the lime juice, cover in the oil and sprinkle over the sugar. Then stir everything together and enjoy!

Lovely!

Recipe of the week! - Vanilla Creme Brulee

Hello food.....

 

Burnt cream just doesn’t sound as attractive as crème brulee does it? Anyway, everyone seems to find these difficult. They’re not actually too hard as long as you pay attention and treat the recipe like a science. I’ve messed with it a bit to get it to the stage where it doesn’t curdle, so make sure you keep quantities just right! Then sit back and enjoy!

What do I need?

4 Eggs

2 Egg Yolks

1 Litre Double Cream

1 Vanilla Pod

135g Caster Sugar

What do I do?

       1. Bring cream and vanilla seeds to boil in a heavy based pan. 

       2. Whisk together eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until lovely and creamy.

       3. Slowly, slowly add the cream mix to the eggs, whisking all the time to make sure it doesn’t go all manky and curdley.

       4. Strain into a jug in case of any little lumps and pour even amounts into ramekins.

       5.Place ramekins in baking dish of boiling water (be very careful) and cook at 180˚c/ Gas Mark 5 for 30 minutes.

       6. Cool.

       7. Sprinkle a thin coating of caster sugar on the cooled brulees and ‘burn’ with a blow torch, et voila – crème brulee!

Richard Of York Gave Battle - Vain

Hello food.....

 It was the lovely Nicola's birthday party last night, therefore it was essential to make a cake. Now a standard every day cake would just not have been beautiful enough and celebratory enough - therefore the decision was made to create a RAINBOW CAKE! A lovely, pretty challenge for Jess's Messes!

Together, with Jane and Sarah the most colourful cake in the world was created. We did not include an indigo layer, as there were already far too many colourings going into the cake. However the final product was still pretty impressive (even if I do say so myself)! :)

We just made a big bowl of standard sponge mix - which I then proceeded to drop my phone into... Then divided into 6 bowls and added horrendous amounts of colouring. After cooking it was time to build the cake and decorate. Simply built the cake with a plain butter cream between each layer and around the outside!

We made the decoration of the cake nice and simple, so the surprise and joy of the cake was when it was sliced into! Everyone seemed to enjoy it, however my advice to everyone who wants to make this and eat it. Cut the teeniest, tiniest, thinest slices as otherwise it's practically impossible to finish it!

A great success! I will DEFINITELY be making it again soon. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLA!

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The Website

The homepage

Hello food.....

As the Jess's Messes Empire continues to expand and take over the world (sort of)... the website has been created:

www.jesssmesses.co.uk

It is still in it's very early stages and needs some clever designing by my: web designer (Sarah that's you) and my graphic designer (Joe that's you), but it's a start.
Let me know what you think: jess@jesssmesses.co.uk 

Thank you
xxx

Joe-Joe Hubbio

Saaarrraaahhhh!

The Best Ribs I Have EVER Tasted!

Hello food.....

The Rib Man's AMAZING foooood!

Last Monday I went to The Restaurant Show in Earl's Court and had utterly the best food experience of my life. There was a 'Streetfood Market' set up! With so much choice it was quite the challenge to decide which to visit, but then, out of the corner of my eye I saw the thing that changed my food life forever..... The Rib Man stall.

Now I have always been a fan of ribs ever since my childhood regular birthday experiences of Damons in Lincoln, but this was just too fantabulous for words. The meat was all off the bone and placed in a lovely bread bun and then covered in your choice of sauce. We went for the least spicy option, it still had a bit of a kick to it, but in a wonderful way that just set your tastebuds alight! There was a little too much for me and my teeny tummy, but nevertheless it still all got polished off eventually, there was no way even a smidgen of that delight was going to visit the dark, damp cavern of a bin!

There was potentially a little too much meat, environmentally speaking, however this was one time that my tastebuds beat my principles in life priority as it was just so so so good!

Ridiculously Rich Ribs

To all my friends in living/visiting London I can't describe to you how much I would recommend that you visit one of The Rib Man's street food stalls at Brick Lane and Kings Cross on specific days.

If you want to make some lovely ribs I have a recipe that, compared to the above delights, is not the best in the world, but is still pretty tasty: Ridiculously Rich Ribs.

Your Opinions Please...

Hello food.....

I asked a very simple question at work yesterday. It sparked quite a debate.

Sweet or savoury - you decide!

Please send me your opinions, just one word will do, here is the question:

Milk - a sweet or savoury item? 


Email: jess@jesssmesses.co.uk

Or comment on the blog, orrrrr write on my Facebook Page

Christmas Hamper Time

Hamper Sample

Hello food.....

The first hamper has been made.

This is just a reminder about what you can get in your Christmas Hamper this year. Free delivery on all orders!

If you are interested and would like more information. You can do one of 3 things.


1. Check out the hamper booklet here:Hamper Booklet 2012

2. Email me here: jess@jesssmesses.co.uk

3. Like the Jess's Messes Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/jesssmessesfood

4. Place an Order here: http://www.jesssmesses.co.uk/what-does-jess-do/the-hampers/

Christmas Hamper 2010

So the countdown is on until my favourite day of the year! CHRISTMAS DAY! Yes, I am probably excited farrrrrr to early on, however this good planning this year means my Jess's Messes Christmas Hampers will be better than ever.

In 2010 they were made as gifts, in 2011 I sold some to get the name out there a bit. In 2012 - they will be made to perfection as I really focus on the Jess's Messes business. Tell all your food loving friends! :)



Here's just a short snippet to see what offerings there are this year:


Giggly Gingerbread People

Beautiful Bags:

• Secret Shortbread
• Giggly Gingerbread People
• Merry Meringues
• Magical Mince Pies
• Twisty Cheesy Snackingtons
• Excellent X-mas Cake
• Tarts
• Leek and Stilton
• Onion and Thyme

Jess's Jingle Jam

Jolly Jars:

• Charming Christmas Chutney
• Jess's Jingle Jam
• Barrowscotch Butterclough Sauce
• Ravishing Red Onion Marmalade
• Luscious Lemon Curd